IT is normally the preserve of clairvoyants but, during the next two weeks, Newcastle fans will be able to look into the future.

For a fleeting fortnight, the club's supporters will be treated to a glimpse of a world they have heard talked about, but rarely witnessed with their own eyes.

For some, it will open up golden opportunities and new possibilities.

For others, it will be a source of danger and inevitable demise. For all, it will be a world without Alan Shearer.

His absence is currently temporary - the result of a straining a thigh muscle in training last Thursday - but, unless the Newcastle skipper goes back on everything he has said up to this point, it will become permanent in May.

How on earth will United cope without their talisman - a striker who has scored ten goals already this season and needs just 18 more to overhaul Jackie Milburn's all-time record for the club?

Well, on the evidence of Saturday's 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, not too badly at all.

It is impossible to over-state how important Shearer has been to Newcastle since returning to Tyneside in the summer of 1996, and it is difficult to down-play the role that he continues to perform in a black and white shirt.

But recent weeks have shown that there are times when Newcastle's frontline could be a far more potent unit without their talismanic number nine.

Souness' efforts to accommodate his three leading strikers were laudable at first but, in time, the ploy has served to weaken United's attacking options.

Craig Bellamy has been utterly wasted on the right flank, while Shearer and Patrick Kluivert - two players who are far from the identikits some perceived them to be in the summer - have struggled to develop a mutual understanding.

The upshot was four domestic defeats in a row, with the recent Carling Cup reverse to Chelsea highlighting the problems inherent in Souness' intransigence over matters of selection.

John Terry might be one of the best centre-halves in the country, but his cause is hardly hindered when Newcastle fail to test his ability to twist and turn or deal with a striker bearing down on him at full tilt.

After failing to break through with either Shearer or Kluivert, Souness should have let Bellamy sit on the shoulder of the Chelsea back four but, instead, he remained largely redundant on the right wing.

On Saturday, Bellamy's pace was introduced into the equation, and there is no co-incidence that he made the game safe by squeezing past a tiring Palace backline with two minutes left on the clock.

The Wales international should not be guaranteed his place either, but there will be games when his raw speed is the likeliest way to unlock an opposition defence.

On those occasions, Souness will be left with a straight choice between Shearer and Kluivert and, while there will be times when he should go with the former, it should not be an open and shut case.

The 34-year-old remains a prodigious poacher of goals, but there is no longer a need to assume Newcastle cannot function without him.

They managed on Saturday and, with games against Sochaux and Everton to come in his absence, it will be a surprise if they do not succeed again.

Souness had a difficult decision taken out of his hands at Selhurst Park - it is to be hoped he is brave enough to come to the same conclusion himself from time to time once his skipper returns.

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